Talk:Egypt

Etymology

There is no mention of the alternate English spellings: Aegypt & Ægypt. Although rare, these spellings are in the dictionary and perhaps should be mentioned. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mjb1981 (talk • contribs) 11:41, 17 February 2008 (UTC)

An accuracy improvement in the religion section.

GIT-ER Dun.....In the Religion section of this article (Egypt, as at March 15,2008), states that Christians form 10-20% of the the population. This is a very wide range and is very inaccurate. The reason for this confusion is that the last population count done by the government which included a check for religion was in 1997 at which time christians were 6.5 million. Newer population counts don't include religion checks so the actual number is not known. The only Christian population count that is available is that provided by the church which says that Christians as of 2008 are 16 million which out of 80 million citizens, form 20%. Most people are confused and use old figures till today which gives them a much lower percentage. I hope someone corrects this figure by stating that there is no official religion count but the church according to their independent count claim that it 20% as of 2008.

Joe Cargo (talk) 18:32, 15 March 2008 (UTC)

I cannot see how this can be true. The last check concluded that there are 7 to 8% Christians in Egypt, and about 91% muslims. Hobapotter (talk) 18:14, 27 April 2008 (UTC)

Don't forget to look at the sources, Hobapotter. Wikipedia is supposed to be neutral to satisfy all (ie, some Christians claim 20% while the CIA World Factbook says it's 10%). Also, there are very few "updated" statistics (or accurate ones for that case), so the "wide range" is not actually too wide considering that.

I hope that answers your questions :)

• ~ Troy (talk) 03:55, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

Muslims

The Egyptian peoplation is 91% muslims , 7% christians and 2% athiests or and other religions —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mahmoud-Megahid (talk • contribs) 02:08, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

This is exactly the problem I have with some Wikipedians who simply claim population sources for any religion and/or demographic figures.

1. at least sign your comments

2. cite reliable sources (even if they're biased, balance them with other sources). For example (according to sources I've read), if the Egyptian Gov. says muslims form over 90% of Egypt's pop. and all other sources claim 90%-or-under (the lowest of which is about 80%), then you shouldn't JUST claim "Oh, hey, it's over 90%," or vice versa.

3. Last I checked, the atheist population was slim-to-none in Egypt, and that's probably what most folks would assume. In the case of your opinion being contrary to the opinion of the majority, you would have to cite reliable sourc-ES (if there's one crackpot source which is put forward, then no one is going to buy it).

If you don't include good sources, then I'm afraid I'll have to undo any unsubstantiated edits on any population figures, such as Egyptian ones. Remember, there's the argument that the Egyptian government deflates non-muslim figures for political reasons, and there's also the belief that the atheist figures are inflated as they would like to have their fair share of power in several modern civilizations. You have to prove these allegations to be correct.

Until then, I simply don't buy it: evidence is one of the morals for good peer-review editing.

Regards,

• ~ Troy (talk) 00:59, 28 April 2008 (UTC)

Inappropriate Quotes

Ordinary Egyptians frequently express this sentiment. For example, a foreign tourist said after visiting Egypt,"Although an avowedly Islamic country and now part and parcel of the Arab world, Egyptians are very proud of their distinctiveness and their glorious Pharaonic past dating back to 3500 BC... 'We are not Arabs, we are Egyptians,' said tour guide Shayma, who is a devout Muslim."[20]

In late 2007, el-Masri el-Yom daily newspaper conducted an interview at a bus stop in the working-class district of Imbaba to ask citizens what Arab nationalism (el-qawmeyya el-'arabeyya) represented for them. One Egyptian Muslim youth responded, "Arab nationalism means that the Egyptian Foreign Minister in Jerusalem gets humiliated by the Palestinians, that Arab leaders dance upon hearing of Sadat's death, that Egyptians get humiliated in the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, and of course that Arab countries get to fight Israel until the last Egyptian soldier."[21] Another felt that,"Arab countries hate Egyptians," and that unity with Israel may even be more of a possibility than Arab nationalism, because he believes that Israelis would at least respect Egyptians.[21]

Surely the point being made by the "Identity" section can be adequately expressed without the kind of anecdotal evidence quoted above? If these were opinion polls or assessments made by academic scholars that would be one thing, but quoting unnamed tour guides and two people at a bus station seems very unprofessional and doesn't reflect very well on the balance of this section. I mean what's the difference between this and just cherry-picking quotes from a few blogs? The quotes themselves don't prove much anyway; I can point to similar "anti-Arab" quotes from Kuwaitis, Iraqis, and Saudis, that doesn't mean they don't consider themselves Arabs. On the flip side, I can also gather some quotes from ordinary Egyptians that express the exact opposite sentiments and wouldn't make Egyptians more Arab either. I know this and the "Egyptians" article have been very contentious in the past, but I hope the other editors would show an open mind about this particular point I'm trying to make here. -- Slacker (talk) 08:45, 25 March 2008 (UTC)

Absolutely correct. As an Egyptian, i can affirm what you say. The whole "we are not arabs"-thing is a minority opinion among egyptians, mainly among upper class people. Most people in Egypt do not see a difference in being both Egyptian and Arab. I am one of those. Hamid-Masri (talk) 09:53, 5 May 2008 (UTC)

Like a lot of people in Egypt, I resent being called Arab or anything that I am not. Any Egyptian (regardless of his social background) would not accept adding the term "Arab" to his/her description. Saying that Egyptians are Arab is a big lie promoted by the nasserites. There is a huge difference between being Egyptian and Arab. 209.59.46.80 (talk) 15:48, 5 May 2008 (UTC)

are u people kidding or some thing? I can point to similar "anti-Arab" quotes from Kuwaitis, Iraqis, and Saudis, that doesn't mean they don't consider themselves Arabs. well i tell u what, do it.

as long as u dont get a source to aid that the majority of egyptians think them selves arabs, u've got no chance to revert that claims, if u like. One last pharaoh (talk) 15:18, 11 May 2008 (UTC)

April 6th

How come the 6th of April strike isn't mentioned here? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dewberry (talk • contribs) 20:36, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

It will be, thanks for pointing that out. Please feel free to add it yourself also. — Zerida ☥ 23:34, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

The idenity section is useless

Egyptian are proud to be Pharaoh and Arab because they ancestor are both Arab and Pharaoh , that's also according to several studies made in Egypt , so that section is completely trivial and i suggest removing it 3d vector (talk) 23:09, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

I agree. also for the reasons stated in "Inappropriate Quotes" above. either deletion or making it somewhat more objective. if there are three dominant views of egyptian identity(pharaonic, arabic, islamic) then this part seems to be entirely geared towards supporting the first one.78.29.210.205 (talk) 19:29, 9 May 2008 (UTC)

u cannot mix the religious identity with the other two. what is the problem with believing ura muslim, and an egyptian, but there IS a real problem when saying that u are an egyptian, and an arab, since u gotta choose one of the 2 identities. One last pharaoh (talk) 15:21, 11 May 2008 (UTC)

Egyptians have been already arabized. Refering to Arab: "An Arab is a person who identifies as such on genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds." Because Egypt has been an Arab country for a long time, it is very reasonable to say that you are Egyptian and Arab, since identifying yourself as an Arab requires only one of the three ground mentioned above; and of course most Egyptians share at least the last two, they are both culturally and linguistically Arab. Egyptian sometimes do not identify themselves as Arabs because they are of other descents such as Greek, Copt, or Armenian. I am personally Egyptian from mostly Ancient Egyptian but also from Arab descent, and I identify myself as an Arab. 65.92.212.115 (talk) 19:50, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

That is true for some Egyptians, but there are millions of pure Copts who are purely of Coptic ethnicity and cannot be considered "Arab" as they did not inter-marry with the Arabs. ~ Troy (talk) 19:57, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

Media

does anybody know what is the format to put as an audio .ogg file the native term of Places/Subjects in articles?150.140.226.74 (talk) 01:03, 13 May 2008 (UTC)

History

The Persians did not invade in 343 BC. They invaded first in 525 BCE under Cambyses, and the so-called "27th Dynasty" lasted until 404. The Persians then returned in 341 BC under Artaxerxes III and lasted until 331 when Alexander the Great marched in and founded Alexandria. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.22.224.26 (talk) 00:53, 17 May 2008 (UTC)

GDP

hello dudes, why didn't anyone update the country's gdp since 2006?, the gdp now is 431.9$ billion.

source: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/eg.html —Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.234.10.192 (talk) 12:20, 8 June 2008 (UTC)

Flora and Fauna

I don't know if a flora and fauna section is a good idea for a country page, but I'd find it useful.

I got this list from the bbc (http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/egyptians/animal_gallery.shtml) of animals featured in egyptian artwork as sacred - it's a start. Click on an image below to enter the gallery ram Hippo cheetah dog cat crocodile jackal god Anubis Scarab beetle frog dragonfly horse cattle cobra —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.81.36.61 (talk) 14:47, 9 June 2008 (UTC) Egypt is a place filled with avid soccer fans people all over Egypt gather to watch and play this famous spot. Although sum times people start fighting one another to fight over silly things such as whos going to win tomorow nights game —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.131.5.217 (talk) 05:50, 14 June 2008 (UTC)

Egyptians religion

There religion is very diffrent than ours today but still people go by theres. Still today for us we worship a god who we can not see or here but he is the only one. Others pick gods like Cleoropatra or king Tut. That we read about in history books or you see in a movie or series of shows. But they made statchus of there gods. Like people did in way back when, '''Bold text —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.214.113.14 (talk) 00:18, 24 June 2008 (UTC)

Sports section

While, Egypt's national team has not qualified for the FIFA World Cup since 1990, the Egyptian team won the Africa Cup Of Nations an unprecedented six times, including two times in a row in 1957 and 1959 and again in 2006 and 2008, setting a world record.

I think the bold text needs to be deleted. I think it is too based and irrelivant. My soccerclub won our national league five times in a row, that might be a record but definitly not a world record. 85.159.97.1 (talk) 07:44, 27 June 2008 (UTC) When the Pharohs died they were taken to a secret room and their organs were cut out and were p[ut in sacred Canopic jars. Where they were buried with them in their Sarcofogus. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bassist531 (talk • contribs) 16:33, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

Fashion of Ancient Egypt:

There is no mention of the fashion of Ancient Egypt. How was the wigs and cloths worn? Obsessions28 (talk) 01:12, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

Egypt the Arab headquarters

Egypt have good place in the middle east, it is the meeting point for all Arab.Egypt lie on two seas. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.233.106.205 (talk) 23:08, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

What's the point of that? I see no relevance on how your comment may contribute to Wikipedia. You should avoid being to generalized in reference to an entire nation.

...come on, let's be rational here. ~ Troy (talk) 23:22, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

This is an encyclopaedia, not your personal diary. No one cares about opinions or personal pride. Get real. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ahm2307 (talk • contribs) 11:58, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

Citation Needed tags stemming from bias inherent in the article

I've removed the "citation needed" tag that was attached to the claim that "Often corruption is blamed by Egyptians as the main impediment to feeling the benefits of the newly attained wealth" and replaced it with three sources. I don't see why this specific fact needs any citation though; Egypt is well-known for its pervasive corruption...it ranks 105th in the CPI index.

I've also removed the tag attached to a sentence in the Economy subtext: "A rapidly-growing population, limited arable land, and dependence on the Nile all continue to overtax resources and stress the economy," because the claim made here is a logical inference, very easily verifiable. However, I attached a source for good measure.

Next, the claim that "Egypt is slated to overcome South Africa as the highest earner of FDI on the African continent in 2007" is false. FDI has surged in Egypt since the turn of the millennium, but still falls well short of South Africa's. As such, I shall correct that statement as per the citations below...I will also correct the understated figure of $6 billion, which itself wasn't cited. The actual FDI was $11 billion. citation:

• http://memrieconomicblog.org/bin/content.cgi?news=875
• http://www.sagoodnews.co.za/africa/fdi_into_africa_doubles.html

As for the entire 2 paragraphs of fantasies and false presumptions about Etisalat, Orascom, Raya and revamping Egypt's ralroad system, I believe the 'citation needed' tag is well-placed. I actually think this whole section on Egypt's Economy needs to be rewritten as it does not meet Encyclopedic standards. It is marred with praise and glare no different from the government propaganda which bombards at my fellow Egyptians back home.

11:56, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

Transliteration of Gimel

Since Egypt speaks Arabic, therein lies a problem: gimel is normally said like the "j" in "judge", but in Egypt it is the "g" in "gate". If Egypt primarily spoke a dialect of English, then I would know the answer to my question; however, in this case, should we use Modern Standard Arabic or Egyptian Arabic? Mouse is back 23:01, 11 August 2008 (UTC)